"How young?"
"A few hundred years. It takes a lot of time for a simple rat to become what you saw and populate its own spider nest."
"A simple rat?" I was surprised. "How do you know?"
I felt like a kid, shooting question after question at him, but this information was literally gold! I had to get as much as possible out of him.
"I was the one who put the ring on the rat and hid the queen under the White Spider Inn." Manhart said. "It was both a backup plan to eventually deal with the drow and a way of dealing with annoying weaklings who came asking about the Resistance."
My eyes widened. "What? The innkeeper tried to get me killed?"
His eye-flames flickered in a way that made me feel like an idiot.
"Of course he did," he replied. "Do you think that you should have been capable of killing the Fallen Spider Queen with the power you had?"
Thinking about it, no, I didn't. I had only killed it because of a lot of quick thinking.
"So?" I asked.
"So what?"
"What should I do with the ring?"
"Whatever you want, it's yours now. If you put it on, it will turn you into a monster and take control of your body in a few months. A powerful monster, yes, but would it matter when you won't be able to control yourself?"
"Don't you want it?" I didn't intend on selling it to him, but if he told me he wanted it, I'd have a bit of a bargain power over him.
"No. Ilishia was... Displeased with me the last time I dealt with a Fallen God. I recommend you throw it away and forget where you put it."
As if. Someone, somewhere, should be willing to buy it. I'm sure the Surface would have some kind of righteous religious order that would love to have the ring just to lock it in a place where it couldn't hurt anyone.
Preferably without killing me like the Power Hunters.
"No other suggestion?"
He shook his head. "No. The Fallen Gods aren't to be trifled with."
A thought crossed my mind. "Is the Devourer a Fallen God?"
"No. He is... Something else. A martyr turned evil."
"Huh?"
He shook his head again and sat on the chair again. "You don't have enough favor with me to deserve that particular tale. I'll just let you know that the drow were once the noblest of all species in Valia and the Devourer was the most holy of all gods."
"No way. Are you going to shut up after saying that?" I bet even Bear would be interested in knowing more about it.
"Yes. Now, give me the map. It's time I reward you for your efforts, and for you to go on your next journey."
That made me remember Robert. "Wait a second, did you try to get me killed by Robert's hand? I wouldn't have expected me to survive that guy either."
"I didn't. Because of your episode with the Fallen Spider Queen, I expected you to win."
"But it didn't matter to you if I died. You even took precautions by telling me to steal from him instead of telling me to attack him."
He shook his head. "It did matter. If you had died, I would have taken away your position as General."
"So it was a test," I concluded.
"It was also a test. I do need the map and killing Robert is good for the Resistance. I'm so grateful that I'll even let you keep whatever you looted from his body. It should also pay for any operational costs you might have inferred. Now, give me the map. I'm tired of playing with you and I have more important things to attend to."
There went my plans of getting paid for the ten gold coins I had given the gnome.
I had to give it to him: he could go from wise sage to complete douchebag in a second. That was impressive in a weird way.
With a wave of my hand I willed the map to appear. The hand gesture was unnecessary but I had seen NPCs do it that way and I had to admit it seemed more natural somehow for items to magically appear in my hand if I moved it. For some reason, an item appearing out of nowhere in an unmoving hand was unsettling.
The map was a small yellow scroll and the place it led to was way too close to Margs Market for my tastes. It seemed there was a reason Robert, the Great, had been living there.
"Good," Manhart said as he took it. "It's time for your rewards. Fire, darkness, death, and light. Those should be the magical elements you learned, yes? This is going to hurt."
Before I could even blink, my thoughts were shattered by an intense pain.
Raid
Blurans
Underwater — Amphibious — Corrupted
Most children learn how the evil of Valia lurks in the Underworld, but oftentimes there's even greater evil much closer to us that we would like.
The blurans are examples of such evils.
Many a researcher has gone missing in trying to understand their culture, and most of these researchers were in their own homes when they disappeared. For this reason, I pray you forgive me, but this book shall limit the comments on the blurans to facts accepted by the scientific community, not on personally verified data.
It's believed that blurans are distant ancestors to or a magic mutation of the fishmen, who are common in the waters of the Underworld. How one species went to the Underworld and the other to the Underwater can be only speculated. The most widely accepted theory is that the gods did so for a divine reason that we mortals are not privy to.
Physically, their body is completely hairless and their blue skin — hence the name bluran — resembles the hard scales of some lizard species. In some key places of their bodies, the hair is replaced by a kind of callus to maintain their human-like appearance; the eyebrows, for instance. Their eyes have no whites, but different shades of blue instead. Other than these characteristics, these monsters are exactly like humans, even the teeth and nails, which are so rarely the same as humanity's.
Mentally, they could best be compared to a mix of zombies, barbarians, and drow. They are wild, brutal, governed by their base desires, and yet, they can plot ahead and restrain their impulses while they wait for the right time.
All recorded instances of a bluran living in a Surface society speak of disaster. In all but one of the eighteen recorded instances, the blurans murdered at least one person without apparent reason, giving no motives for the killings, and disappeared without leaving any traces. Only once were the humans found to be in the wrong.
A particularly disturbing record is from the city of Lukur. On 13 BT (Before Travelers), a bluran saved a mayor's daughter from a monster attack in the morning and accepted an invitation to lunch with them. After lunch, he killed all of them, including the girl, and was seen leaving the city with blood on his clothes and a smile on his face.
No one knows why they behave the way they do and while some believe there are cultural differences we don't understand, it's no excuse for their behavior on the Surface.
Blurans only use their own crafted weapons, which are crude looking and worthless, but they wield them with expertise. Specialists insist the best way of dealing with them is by using surprise attacks.
I may be putting my life in danger by writing this, but if you ever find a bluran, I recommend you either run or kill him without warning, before he kills you for no reason.
Think about it. And think about why after seventeen unprovoked murders, no Surface government ever had the guts to declare blurans forbidden in their territories.
-- Excerpt from "Species of Valia", by Amir, a Karr
10. Multiple Stimuli
"I don't know! We operated in cells-" The man stopped talking when the soldier put a plastic bag over his head.
Major Stewart, who was sitting in front of the now bagged man, sighed. It was usually easy to get answers out of reluctant people. A simple plastic bag could be used to suffocate any man, and he would spill the beans ASAP.
Sadly, sometimes it failed.
The Major had hoped to avoid getting things messy, but the man currently being interviewed wasn't cooperating. More persuasive methods were required.
"Beta," Stewart said,
"there must be a broom in this safe house somewhere. Bring it to me. Looks like our friend needs proper internal motivation."
Locating the former Sergeant Luston, the bound man, hadn't been easy. The General himself had to call in favors from high places, including the Chief of Staff, and almost eleven days had been needed to track down just the first man. This was a testament to how wrong this whole business was.
Mercenaries shouldn't have been so good at hiding themselves. Especially not Luston. The man had been dishonorably discharged after biting an officer's nose off. He should at least have been under surveillance, if not in jail.
Instead, he had been living in a mansion, with an expensive car in his garage, and an ID Chip under his skin that named him Mark Suleiman. It was a legit ID Chip, too. It spoke of vast amounts of money and high-level corruption, which wasn't a surprise after the V-Soft scandal.
The Major would have to take extra care not to step on the wrong foot and start a fight he didn't want. His current orders were to track and dispose of mercenaries, not to cleanse the country of villainy.
His mental count came to twenty, and he nodded to Alpha, the soldier suffocating the mercenary. The plastic bag was removed, and Luston immediately vomited blood. Then, he looked at Stewart with bloodshot eyes full of hatred and fear, breathing heavily.
Stewart waited a few seconds before asking the same questions he had asked just a few moments ago:
"Who gave you the orders? Who are your companions? Where are they?"
The man answered too quickly. "I don't know! I swear on it! I don't know!"
The Major shook his head slightly; he would have to use the broom after all.
Just in case, he also pulled his combat knife from its sheath. Perhaps Luston would respond better to multiple stimuli at the same time.
11. Power Up
I gritted my teeth, unwilling to give Manhart the pleasure of hearing me scream in pain.
After five seconds, it went away and an exclamation point appeared. I willed it to open.
New skill unlocked in the Origin skill-tree:
Lifeball (level 1)
After a long time connecting to the life force inside your body, you've learned to harness it in a morb and use it as a spell.
» Active Spell
» Cost: 15 MP
» Amassing time: 3 seconds
» Element: Life
» Damage: 47 ((50 + 11 [Adept Mage] + 34 [Intelligence]) - 50% [Undead + Death Mage])
"Minus fifty percent damage?" I asked.
"Just as the living can't use death magic properly, undead have a disadvantage when using life magic," Manhart explained. "You also learned death element magic, the opposite element to life, first. Each of these factors makes your life magic twenty-five percent weaker and fifty times as hard to train at."
"Is that the reason it's taking so long for me to level up the first life spell?"
The constant damage had been going on for days and was highly annoying. Worse still, for all my other magical elements, it had taken me a few hours to level the first spells and get second-tier ones, but the Cosmo Connection spell was still level one.
"Exactly. You were human before becoming a Deathlord so your body should have taken around two hours to level your first life spell up. Instead, it will take you two hundred hours."
"Damn." That was more than eight days. "Does it mean that if I ever learn water magic it will be harder for me to level it up too?"
"Yes, fifty times as hard, or a hundred hours, and your water magic will be twenty-five percent weaker. That's one of the reasons magic should be properly studied instead of given away so easily the way it is to you Travelers: that way, you could make informed decisions. Your people don't seem to understand it."
"I only hear jealousy," I said. "Speaking of magic, I didn't know I could learn Lifeball without leveling up Cosmo Connection first."
"You can't by yourself. That's why having a mentor is so important."
"Mentor, huh? As long as you don't expect me to call you master, we're cool. Wait, I won't call you daddy either."
He just shook his head and I got the feeling that he was in pain from just interacting with me. Serves him right.
"For third-tier spells onwards, you would usually also have to choose specialization schools, but since it's a reward for a quest, I'll be the one choosing for you."
Specialization schools, also called magic schools, were divided into the seven primary ones: Destruction, Restoration, Illusion, Summoning, Creation, Alteration, and Engraving. Then, there were combinations between them that led to secondary ones, like Illusion and Alteration merging into Shadowing, the magical school responsible for stealth and hiding things.
"Wait a second, I don't want you to choose-"
Pain slammed into my skull again and a few seconds later, I checked the exclamation point.
New skills unlocked in The Lack of Light skill-tree
Dark Immersion (level 1)
[Alteration]
You are familiar enough with the darkness that you can now immerse yourself completely in it.
While immersed in darkness, you are harder to see.
This spell can be countered by a highly perceptive person.
» Active Spell
» Cost: 50 MP per minute
» Amassing time: 10 seconds
» Element: Darkness
» Stealth level: 24% (20 + 4 [Adept Mage])
It was a surprisingly good spell. From what I knew, the reason it wasn't from the Shadowing school was because it didn't deal with illusions; it only altered me.
Good or not, I wanted to be able to pick what I wanted. Before I could say anything though, pain hit me again.
New skill unlocked in the Death is a Lifestyle skill-tree
Death Absorption (level 1)
[Simple Transfer]
You are familiar enough with death energy that you can now absorb it directly from other undead to heal yourself.
» Active Spell
» Cost: 50 MP
» Amassing time: 1 second
» Element: Death
» Distance: Touch
» Absorption: 169 (100 + 22 [Adept Mage] + 10 [Deathlord] + 34 [Intelligence] + 3 [Healer])
It was good to see the deathlord species' ten percent bonus to death magic being applied, as well as the twenty-two percent bonus from the Adept Mage trait.
The Death Absorption spell was excellent if I got close to my enemy. I had no idea which schools made the 'Simple Transfer' one but from what the spell did, I guessed it had something to do with Destruction and Restoration.
I mean, the HP was drained away from the target, which is Destruction, and then added to my HP, which is... Restoration? Or maybe Alteration? Well, I would need to check it out online, later.
New skill unlocked in the Origin skill-tree
Lifelock (level 1)
[Alteration]
Even being an Undead, you can use the lingering life energy in your body to lock your Health Points while your Mana Points take the loss.
» Active Spell
» Cost: 100 MP per second + (Damage Taken x5) - 34 [Intelligence] turned into MP loss
» Amassing time: 4 seconds
» Element: Life
Although it wasn't exceptional, I guessed I could use the Lifelock in a desperate situation, even though the amassing time made it difficult to be used in the heat of a battle.
New skill unlocked at The Flames skill-tree
Firebomb (level 3)
[Destruction]
After creating enough fireballs to kill a small army, you become better acquainted with harnessing the powers of fire.
Your first idea is to use more magic fire to create a bigger explosion.
» Active Spell
» Cost: 150 MP
» Amassing time: 2 second
» Element: Fire
» Area of effect: 2 meters
» Epicenter: 50 centimeters
» Damage: 30
8 (225 + 49 [Adept Mage] + 34 [Intelligence])
» Max collateral burn damage: 30% (92)
The fire spell though, was awesome. My current fireball spell dealt about a hundred and fifty damage to a single target when considering the collateral burn damage.
This one did over double the damage, in an area, and took only double of the time to create the morb.
Granted, the mana cost was quite excessive, a hundred and fifty MP to the fireball's forty, but with my current three thousand MP, I could cast lots of firebombs before running dry.
Plus, when mathing the hell out of it — yes, mathing is a word, or should be. — I found out that a fireball dealt around 3.9 damage per mana, while a firebomb dealt about 2.6. It meant that fireballs were fifty percent more cost-effective than firebombs, and the latter still cost much more to amass.
The firebomb being an area of effect spell, however, was especially good. Robert had cut most of my fireballs in the air, but with the firebomb I could explode the spells close to my enemies and make them take damage anyway!
A big downside was that my nearby allies would also take damage, but I was sure that Daggers and Bear would love the extra heat! The Underworld was so cold, after all.
"Thanks!" I was moved enough to properly thank Manhart. "Why these spells though?"
"I have my reasons," he replied simply.
And to think that I had just thanked him.
Quest completed: Steal from Robert, the Great
Random attribute points received:
» +1 agility
» +2 dexterity
» +1 constitution
HP: 2125 (+140)
Stamina: 515 (+10)
» +1 willpower
Stamina: 520 (+5)
Level up!
Current level: 34
Unbound Deathlord_Obliteration Page 12
